You must take these rules into consideration when posting at Push Square - use common sense, be polite and respectful and don't use profanity or abusive language. You are our guest and we retain the right to edit or remove any posts we deem to be against our community rules.

Whenever you post content on our site you accept these community rules and agree to act in a way that follows the spirit of the community and the spirit of these rules.

Rules

The following rules are designed to foster a welcome, friendly and diverse community and, to the majority, are mostly common sense.

  1. Use of Language
    1. Do not use profanity; Use of unsavoury language including profanity and swearing is not acceptable, please remember that this website has users of all ages. Trying to deliberately obfuscate swear words by changing letters or similar methods are also considered profanity.
    2. Do not post in foreign languages; All posts should be made in English, non-English posts will most likely be removed.
    3. Do not post in full capitals; Or include an obscene amount of full-stops (periods) or exclamation marks, question marks etc.
  2. General Behaviour
    1. Do not post - unless you have something useful to say; Only post when you have something meaningful to say or something that will contribute to the discussion. Posts such as "Yes" or "I agree", "Slow News Day?" or "LOL" are un-constructive. This also goes for bad jokes and anything else that distracts from the subject at hand.
    2. Do not post inappropriate comments; You are entitled to your opinion; we’re not obliged to host it; if you post something we perceive to be ignorant, misguided, distasteful, posted in bad faith (to deliberately stir up controversy, for example) or simply inappropriate, we reserve the right to remove your comment. Above all, our site is a place for inclusive, positive conversation, not a forum to foster division or give voice to outmoded views.
    3. Do not post off-topic comments; Please stick to the main subject of the article or topic at hand. Whilst tangents can often be OK, certain comments that derail a discussion, or go over previous discussions may be deemed off-topic and removed to avoid straying too far from the initial subject.
    4. Do not "troll" or "bait" other users; Posts that purposefully or systematically go against the grain to trigger a reaction from others are prohibited. Purposefully disrupting discussions with unpopular opinions to create arguments is not allowed, we simply suggest you don't get involved in these conversations. Users that are seen to be continuously trolling or baiting will be banned.
    5. Do not beg or solicit; Begging or soliciting for anything is not allowed. This includes, but is not limited to; asking users for money; to visit a website; visit a YouTube channel; asking for a download code; etc.
    6. Do not discuss moderation issues in public; If your posts are removed or edited you should talk to us about it by using the contact form. Creating another post to discuss why a previous post was removed will not be tolerated.
    7. Do not post excessive amounts of emoticons; Emotes are a great way to add feeling and expression to your posts, but don't overdo it with lots of them repeated.
    8. Do not post excessive amounts of images/videos; Posts with many images or videos are a strain on mobile users, so please be courteous. Consider linking to the images remotely rather than using the [IMG] tags.
  3. Abusive Behaviour
    1. Do not post offensive remarks; Show respect for all. Hate speech, bigotry or offensive remarks about, but not limited to, race, gender, sexuality, origin, creed and disability will NOT be tolerated and will most likely be deleted by staff, and the poster may be warned, suspended or immediately banned.
    2. Do not harass other users, including moderators, staff and contributors; If you disagree with anything you've read on our site, whether staff or user-submitted, please be respectful in your response. Repeatedly hounding the same user/author will be considered harassment and will not be tolerated.
    3. Do not post unconstructive feedback or unfair criticism; We welcome fair criticism of our content, however, we insist that you are both constructive and polite with your feedback. Insulting authors, complaining about article topic selection, topic frequency, arguing about what should or should not be in the site's remit is rarely constructive. Also consider whether it should be discussed publicly or via the contact form.
    4. Do not "flame" others; Blatantly argumentative posts directed at others will not be tolerated. While we do allow members to have respectful debate and voice their own opinions, there will be a limit to how far a heated debate can go. Be civil, show respect and do not persistently argue other users.
    5. Do not disrespect other opinions; Remember that it's possible to have differing opinions on a subject. Just because you don't agree with someone, doesn't mean you need to flame them or harass them. Please always remain constructive in your response.
  4. Unacceptable Content
    1. Do not post unacceptable images or videos; Users are prohibited from posting pornographic, vulgar or any other distasteful, inappropriate and explicit images/videos. Users should also be responsible for the copyright of any image(s)/video(s) they post.
    2. Do not link to illegal content; Linking to any illegal download sites, torrents or other resources that allow users to gain access to illegal content such as copyrighted ROMs, games, movies, music, TV shows, software or related activities is strictly prohibited.
    3. Do not discuss current gen emulators/homebrew/piracy; It is permitted to constructively discuss the use of flash carts, emulators and homebrew software only when in the context of previous generation(s) hardware. We ask that you do not link to any resources for illegal copyrighted content such as where to download ROMs, and we reserve the right to lock, edit or delete any threads or comments we feel stray too far into an illegal or a legal grey area, especially related to current-gen products.
    4. Do not post spoilers for upcoming or recently released games; Basically, be respectful of the fact others may not want a brand new game to have major plot points spoiled for them. You can talk around them, but without blatant spoilers.
    5. Do not post private information; You should not post personally identifiable information, whether relating to you or someone else, and any content that violates another person's reasonable expectation of privacy.
  5. User Accounts & Profiles
    1. Do not use inappropriate avatars; Common sense applies here, any avatars we deem to be inappropriate (eg, pornographic, hate iconography etc.) will be removed without warning.
    2. Do not use inappropriate or offensive usernames; Usernames that appear to offensive language or words, even when obfuscated (eg, b1tch) may be deemed inappropriate and changed/removed.
    3. Do not create duplicate, fake or "sock" accounts; Creating alternate accounts or dummy accounts to trick/harass other users will result in all of your accounts being banned. Users who have been banned and create new accounts fall into this category and will also be banned.
    4. Do not impersonate other users/people; Creating fake accounts that impersonate other users or famous people, developers, organisations etc. is not allowed and will be banned when discovered.
    5. Do not post inappropriate profile covers; Common sense applies here also, any profile covers deemed to be inappropriate (eg, pornographic) will be removed without warning.
    6. Do not post inappropriate content on profiles; Your user profile is your opportunity to tell other users about yourself; however, we expect you to remain on the topic(s) of our website or similar hobbies and interests. Your profile is not an area for trolling, political slogans, hate speech or any other content we feel is inappropriate for our website. Any content or links we deem inappropriate on your profile will be removed.
  6. Spam, Advertising and Competitions
    1. Do not post adverts; Posts to promote your own website, business, products, services, YouTube channel, social media account etc. are not allowed. Instead, you may include a link in your forum signature. You may use your own personal YouTube channel to share video clips etc. but asking people to subscribe is considered advertising. Offers of trades or private selling are also not allowed.
    2. Do not post spam; Spam covers any unwanted content, such as unwarranted advertising or automated/bot content. Spammers will receive an instant ban and their information (username, email address and IP address) may be reported to various spammer lists and databases.
    3. Do not post competitions; Users are prohibited from creating their own competitions/contests/giveaways and posting them within the forums or articles, if you want to run a competition please do so on your own website.
  7. Forum Etiquette
    1. Do not create duplicate topics; Before you start a topic, perform a search to see if the question or topic you wish to create has been made before. If it has, post in the topic that already exists. Duplicate topics will be closed.
    2. Do not post vague topic titles; Please make the topic title you are creating descriptive, clearly reflecting the topic you are addressing. Do not make generic titles such as "Question" or "I need help", these topics will probably go unnoticed, whereas a topic with a descriptive title will gain more interest.

These rules are reviewed on an on-going basis and are subject to change. If you have any suggestions on changes to our rules, please contact us and discuss them.

Reporting an Issue

Whilst we do have a few staff members that will pro-actively apply these rules, we can't be around at all times. Therefore we rely on you to report an issue when you spot a breach of these rules.

Reporting is easy, simply click on the 'report' button (usually next to the post itself) and complete the form. This information will then be sent to our moderation team for review and further action will take place.

Alternatively, you can always use the contact us form. Please note that both methods are private and we will not mention to the offending user who reported them, unless you ask us to do so.

Warnings, Suspensions & Bans

Whenever a user is seen to be breaking our rules our moderators or staff members will decide on a course of action. The severity of the violation, the frequency of violations and user-history will all be contributing factors to our decisions.

We are happy to give benefit of the doubt to the user, assuming they understand their mistake and agree to follow the rules going forward. Ideally, we would not have to ban people, but persistent offenders or severe offenders will receive either temporary or permanent bans.

  • Under all circumstances, we reserve the right to edit or delete any topics/posts/comments we deem breaking our rules without prior warning.
  • Under some circumstances, the offending member will be issued a warning and an explanation or the offending member may be temporarily banned, pending a conversation between staff and user.
  • Under heavier circumstances, being an clear violation of rules or disruption, the offending member will be banned permanently from all of our websites.

All actions are decided by moderators and staff only and are not open to public debate, they remain a private issue between user and staff and therefore should not be discussed by other users.

If you find your account has been banned, you should first contact us and talk to us about it, we're actually quite nice people and given a civil discussion, we might even be happy to re-activate your account knowing that you have taken on board our rationale and agree not to breach the rules again.

Ignoring Other Users

We understand that sometimes you might not see eye-to-eye with other users, and that is okay. In most cases, it's easy to simply skip over comments from people you often disagree with, however, we've implemented an 'Ignore' feature (sometimes called 'Mute') that allows you to ignore specific users so their comments/posts don't appear for you.

Simply click the 'Ignore' button next to a user's post and they will be put on your Ignore list where they can be removed at any time.

Contact Us

All of our staff are real people and they welcome constructive feedback via the contact form. However, repeatedly hounding our staff via comments, forum topics, messages sent via e-mail, via other websites or other social media will not be tolerated and will likely be removed. Again, use the please use the contact form.

When contacting us, please behave as you would on-site — treat us like human beings, and don't waste our time. We don't stop being staff just because we're no longer posting publicly. Calling us filthy names behind the scenes and threatening to report us to the 'Internet Police' will not persuade us to unban your account for you, end of story.

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